Excel Output to PowerBI

Hi,

I don't think I've seen this specific issue brought up on here, so just wanted to check if anyone else had seen this behaviour.

I have an excel file which tracks case figures, a routine runs every day and appends the new days data to the bottom of a defined range.

This works absolutely fine, the data writes to the sheet and when you open it, everything is in order.

However, about 20 minutes after this I have a scheduled task on a PowerBI Gateway to refresh a dashboard using this data, and the new rows are not imported at all. Even if I open the PowerBI dashboard directly and refresh, this also doesn't pull through the new data added by the Alteryx workflow.

I've noted that if I open the excel case file, and immediately save it (without making any changes at all), then PowerBI can correctly pick up the new data. So it seems like the output from Alteryx, when appending to an existing sheet, is not somehow leaving the file in a format that PowerBI can correctly read it until the file is opened and re-saved manually.

Does anyone have any ideas or seen this themselves?

Thanks,

Leon

Output

Power BI

Accepted answers

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rkapoor

@lcrosby I would recommend you try to go straight into Power BI as opposed to going down to Excel and then to Power BI.

Have a look at this tool which will help you:

https://help.alteryx.com/current/designer/microsoft-power-bi-output-tool

lcrosby

Hi,

Yes I can (and do!) use that tool for other data, but this output file is also used outside of PowerBI. I could have two outputs, one straight into powerBI and one to a file as a workaround. To be honest, this appears to be a bug with Alteryx and how it's writing/appending Excel files, and if PowerBI is having trouble reading it, it concerns me that other systems may have the same trouble!

Foldmaster

I am having this exact same issue, where Power BI is not recognizing that an Excel file appended to by Alteryx has been updated. It won't refresh unless I open the Excel file and save it. It seems to be an Alteryx issue where it leaves the Excel file in an "Unaltered State" after appending to it. Any workaround?

KSassone

Following: I am having exactly the same issue as I have several workflow processes that append .xlsx files on each run. The file correctly reflects the appended data record count. However, the data is not recognizable on Refresh in PowerBI. The data set will not return the appended record count until I open the file, Save over the same file, close, and Refresh within PowerBI. Any PowerBI Refresh will not recognize the new range in the xlsx file until I Save over the previous file.

CainãClímaco

Same problem!

KJMCLEOD

This is still an issue. But it doesn't happen with all my excel files. Yes, there is a power bi output tool. I was told by my admin that it can not be used on the server. Also changing the output now means redoing the entire power bi report and losing all previous data from the power bi report. The workflow appends the file, thus preventing use of .csv as I do not see and append option.

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